This invention relates to the construction of a basket for displaying household plants. The criteria which basket designers and fabricators strive to satisfy include aesthetic appeal, durability, versatility and convenience. Notwithstanding efforts to meet these demands, no known mode of construction satisfactorily complies with these criteria. For example, while baskets manufactured from plastic may be durable, they very often lack aesthetic appeal. On the other hand, woven baskets constructed from wood or other cellulose material possess a high degree of aesthetic appeal yet they lack durability as a result of the deteriorating effects of repeated exposures to water. It is the latter form of construction to which the present invention is addressed.
A versatile cellulose basket design has not been achieved by the industry. In this regard, baskets have been provided which fall into one of three general categories including those which may be displayed on existing pieces of furniture, suspended from the ceiling or another point of elevation, or which may be free-standing by providing an integral stand. A cellulose basket construction which may be displayed in any of these three fashions has not been achieved previously. Moreover, known hanging basket constructions are unstable since the basket is not physically connected in any manner to the hanging element. That is, the hanging element is generally formed of three strands of cord or rope which are joined at one end to form a loop and knotted together at the other end. The basket is then placed in the element and the three strands of yarn are arranged about the basket. If one strand is displaced, the basket is then free to fall out of the hanging element.
Convenience is an important criterion which has also been neglected in large measure by prior basket designs. In this vein, convenience may be considered synonymous with the ease with which the plants may be watered. The all too familiar problems caused by over-watering have been addressed without success. Baskets woven from cellulose material generally have bottoms made from the same cellulose material as is used to manufacture the shell (e.g., integrally woven with the basket shell) or employ a particle board bottom. In both constructions, these bottoms rapidly deteriorate upon repeated exposure to moisture so that the owner must remove the plant from the basket for watering, allow any excess water to drain therefrom, and then return the potted plant to the basket. This procedure is not only inconvenient, but may also be deleterious to the plant since it will be deprived of excess water which it could later withdraw from the reservoir as needed. Plastic liners have been provided in these baskets with only limited success. While the liners prevent limited amounts of moisture from contacting the cellulose bottoms, they are easily torn or punctured, and either fail to provide the much desired water reservoir or permit the potted plant to sit in a pool of water. Conventional drip trays (e.g. plastic trays) fail to remedy the problem since the pot rests within the tray and therefore occupies a major portion of the available volumetric area available for water retention.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a basket construction of predominately woven cellulose material so as to be aesthetically pleasing, while avoiding the shortcomings associated with prior basket designs of this type.